Because of the above, the BBC's director general/editor-in-chief was forced to resign after only two months on the job.

At least two other senior news executives have "stepped aside" from their posts.

And so it goes.

Want to know why the BBC's agonies are getting such big play internationally?

It's very simple. For the past 90 years the BBC has set the journalistic standard for all the world's public broadcasters. Including our very own CBC which is based on exactly the same public service principles as the venerable Brit.

The BBC's Royal Charter states flatly: "The BBC exists to serve the public interest." It goes on to explain that its main object "is sustaining citizenship and civil society."

In turn, the CBC's mandate says it should provide: "a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains" (note the order of events).

But the BBC's present agonies would warrant no more than a few paragraphs over a couple of days if its influence was confined to the world's public (as in tax-supported public service) broadcasters.

It's not. When it comes to journalism, the BBC -- and other public broadcasters around the world, like CBC -- still sets the standard for all broadcast newsrooms, whether public or private.

BLOG CONTINUES AFTER SLIDESHOW

Close



BBC Crisis

of





BBC director general George Entwistle stands outside BBC Broadcasting House, London, after he announced his resignation over the "unacceptable" Newsnight broadcast which wrongly implicated a senior former Conservative in a child abuse scandal.

File photo dated 05/10/2010 of Culture Secretary Maria Miller, who today said the &pound;450,000 severance pay for outgoing BBC director-general George Entwistle is &quot;tough to justify considering the circumstances of Mr Entwistle's departure and his contractual arrangements&quot;.

Acting director general of the BBC Tim Davie arrives at New Broadcasting house in central London.

Acting director general of the BBC Tim Davie arrives at New Broadcasting house in central London.

BBC employees arrive for work at the organisation's New Broadcasting House in central London, on November 12, 2012. The BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Stephen Mitchell, have stepped aside amid the crisis over late television star Jimmy Savile and a report wrongly accusing a politician of child abuse, the BBC said Monday. The announcement follows the resignation on Saturday of BBC director-general George Entwistle over another Newsnight report last week that wrongly implicated a senior political figure in abuse at a Welsh children's home in the 1970s. AFP PHOTO / WILL OLIVER (Photo credit should read WILL OLIVER/AFP/Getty Images)

The BBC's offices at New Broadcasting House are pictured in central London, on November 12, 2012. The BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Stephen Mitchell, have stepped aside amid the crisis over late television star Jimmy Savile and a report wrongly accusing a politician of child abuse, the BBC said Monday. The announcement follows the resignation on Saturday of BBC director-general George Entwistle over another Newsnight report last week that wrongly implicated a senior political figure in abuse at a Welsh children's home in the 1970s. AFP PHOTO / WILL OLIVER (Photo credit should read WILL OLIVER/AFP/Getty Images)

CROPPED VERSION The shadow of chairman of the BBC Trust Lord Chris Patten is reflected on a wall outside the BBC's offices in central London on November 11, 2012. Patten called for a radical overhaul of the world's largest broadcaster after it was plunged into crisis following the resignation of the director-general amid a sex abuse scandal. AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLIS (Photo credit should read JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images)

BBC director general George Entwistle (left) looks on as Chairman of the BBC Trust Lord Patten speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House, London, after Mr Entwistle announced his resignation over the "unacceptable" Newsnight broadcast which wrongly implicated a senior former Conservative in a child abuse scandal.

BBC director general George Entwistle (left) looks on as Chairman of the BBC Trust Lord Patten speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House, London, after Mr Entwistle announced his resignation over the &quot;unacceptable&quot; Newsnight broadcast which wrongly implicated a senior former Conservative in a child abuse scandal.

BBC director general George Entwistle speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House, London, as he announced his resignation over the &quot;unacceptable&quot; Newsnight broadcast which wrongly implicated a senior former Conservative in a child abuse scandal.

File photo dated 23/10/2012 of BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, London, as the BBC revealed it is investigating nine allegations of &quot;sexual harassment, assault or inappropriate conduct&quot; among current staff and contributors as the fallout from the Jimmy Savile scandal continues.

File photo dated 03/02/1999 of Sir Jimmy Savile, as the BBC revealed it is investigating nine allegations of &quot;sexual harassment, assault or inappropriate conduct&quot; among current staff and contributors as the fallout from the Jimmy Savile scandal continues.

File photo dated 25/01/12 of Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, who has said he is dedicated to getting to the bottom of the Jimmy Savile scandal that has engulfed the corporation, vowing there would be &quot;no covering our backs&quot;.

File photo dated 01/01/72 of DJ Jimmy Savile visiting the patients and staff of Leeds General Infirmary at the start of the new year. tHE Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, has said he is dedicated to getting to the bottom of the Jimmy Savile scandal that has engulfed the corporation, vowing there would be &quot;no covering our backs&quot;.

File photo dated 27/10/2005 of Dame Janet Smith. An inquiry into the BBC's &quot;culture and practices&quot; during the era of star presenter Jimmy Savile's campaign of sexual abuse is to begin today.

Bev Dawkins (third right) of Mencap reads a statement on behalf of the families who suffered abuse by 11 members of staff from the Winterbourne View care home who were caught on camera abusing severely disabled patients during an undercover BBC Panorama investigation at the South Gloucestershire private hospital.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 28: Police officers leave the apartment of Paul Gadd, otherwise known as 'Gary Glitter' on October 28, 2012 in London, England. Police have arrested the former pop star and convicted sex offender as part of their investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile. (Photo by Warrick Page/Getty Images)

BBC Director-General George Entwistle leaves Portcullis House in Westminster, London, after being quizzed about the corporation's handling of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal by a committee of MPs.

BBC Director-General George Entwistle (front left) and Head of BBC Editorial Policy David Jordan (front right) give evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee in the House of Commons, London, on the corporation's handling of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

Head of BBC Editorial Policy David Jordan gives evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee in the House of Commons, London, on the corporation's handling of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

BBC Director-General George Entwistle gives evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee in the House of Commons, London, on the corporation's handling of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

As a result, the public broadcasters force the privates to stay reasonably honest. Whether they wish to stay reasonably honest or not.

You don't really think, for instance, that here in Canada the owners of CTV, Global, Rogers and the rest of the privates care about the quality of the journalism they broadcast, do you? That they see themselves as public servants dedicated to broadcasting the very finest news and current affairs to the people? That they give a rat's ass for honest, free, public service journalism as an essential cornerstone of democracy?

You're right. In fact, our privates only commit journalism because they have to. It's a condition of their hugely profitable licenses.

So they very resultantly put out the fewest hours of often second-rate journalism they can get away with. All the while, competing to cut newsroom costs (read: fire journalists) and fatten the already obscene profits earned from broadcasting relatively cheap American programming. (A fairly recent survey of one evening's prime time programming by the public broadcaster CBC showed 94 per cent Canadian content. The biggest and richest of our privates, CTV, had exactly zero Canadian content.)

But back to the world's oldest, largest and most prestigious broadcaster, the BBC. Auntie, or the Beeb, as its been lovingly known in Britain until now.

Things are so bad there that one of its veteran journalists, David Dimbleby, publicly talks of bloated management and a culture of "gobbledegook."

He's so angry he even forgets his grammar which is most unlike a BBC grandee: "Any editor, any head of department spends their lives filling in forms and answering questions about things that are not really necessary, using language that is so arcane, about platforms and genres and goodness knows what."

Even the corporation's chairman, Lord Patten of Barnes, says the BBC's handling of the scandal has been "unacceptably shoddy journalism" and calls the organization "a ghastly mess" in need of a "thorough structural overhaul."

Not surprisingly, there have been calls for his resignation too.

Sadly, all this sounds a bit like our very own CBC with its own bloated management, gobbledegook, filling in of forms, and platforms and genres, and need of structural overhaul "and goodness knows what."

So I asked CBC for its reaction to the BBC disasters. In return, I got a memo that Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president CBC English services, sent to staff under the rather odd heading "Why I am not editor-in-chief."

It goes on for some time about the CBC structure which, it seems, is different from BBC's and explains "I am kept fully briefed on our CBC News activities but I do not make editorial decisions..."

Stewart's memo continues: "I watch with interest and concern the events over in the U.K. The back and forth from phone hacking to the present BBC issues risk the debate devolving to 'payback' and attacks not just on a structure or an institution, but as attacks on the values public broadcasting (sic)."

To which CBC's head of media relations, Chuck Thompson, adds: "we have no further comment on what has transpired at the BBC." So I have nothing to report on the BBC's journalistic problems from anyone actually in charge of -- and thus responsible for -- CBC journalism.

But this Monday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which oversees Canada's broadcasters, starts hearings on the CBC's application for a license renewal.

This will likely be a very different hearing from the bureaucratic blandness of the past. That's because the CRTC has a brand new sheriff, one Jean-Pierre Blais, who's already proved he's no Establishment flunky. All hell broke loose among the more savage of our broadcast capitalists when he refused to let BCE Inc. (owner of CTV and numerous specialty TV stations) take over Astral Media -- because it would place too much power in the hands of one company.

Blais will have followed the British public broadcaster's travails, disasters and failures across the pond with great interest. Which doubtless means he'll be looking at Canada's public broadcaster with a newly skeptical eye this week.

If all this happened at the Beeb, could it happen here too? CBC should be afraid. Very afraid.